Sunflower Greens

Black Oil Sunflower - In Shell This year we have seed from a California Sunflower farmer. They grow several varieties, but all they grow is Sunflowers. This seed produces absolutely delicious crops! Sunflower Greens are the quintessential Micro-Green. If you want to grow Big Micro-Greens, start here. There is nothing else like them! See the Notes tab on this page and on our Growing Instructions page for specifics about our current seed. Note: This seed is for Micro-Greens only. If you want sprouts Get These. Our Sunflowers are grown organically.

Growing Basics

The amount of time your seeds should soak in cool water. Soaking is how we begin the sprouting process in most cases.

Rinse / Drain

2 times per day

How often your seeds should be watered. Rinsing thoroughly and then draining as much water as possible are key components to growing great sprouts.

Plant

Day 2

Approximate time you will plant your crop if growing Grass, Greens, or Micro-Greens, after soaking your seeds. If your seeds do not soak they will get planted right off the bat.

Harvest

8 - 12 days

The time it takes to grow a finished Sprout, or other crop (Micro-Greens, Grass, Greens) from a dry Seed. Note: This "finished" Sprout is our preference. you may grow them for as long as you want! In fact, we suggest that you taste them at every rinse to discover when you like them best.

When growing these Greens: You really MUST Pre-Sprout before planting.

Put seed into a jar, bowl or your Sprouter. Fill that which you are using with cool (60-70 degree) water. ESSENTIAL SOAKING NOTE: Whole Sunflower Seeds float. To get them all to soak up water well, so they grow well, it is necessary to keep them all under water during their soak. We do this with a mason jar - topped with a screen lid, or a plate atop a bowl, or an Easy Sprout with a flat lid snapped on-top. Whatever you use - keep them all underwater!

Set your Sprouter anywhere out of direct sunlight and at room temperature (70° is optimal) between Rinses. This is where your sprouts do their growing. We use a counter top - in the corner of our kitchen, but where the sprouter won't get knocked over by cats, dogs, kids or us. We don't mind the indirect sunlight or the 150 watts of room light, because light just does not matter much. A plant can only perform photosynthesis when it has leaves. Until then light has little if any effect. Sprouts also happen to like air-circulation, so don't hide your sprouts. We'll get to the light later, after planting our Greens.

Rinse and Drain again in 8-12 hours. And, perhaps one more...Rinse and Drain in 8-12 hours. And, conceivably one more...Rinse and Drain in 8-12 hours.

When most of the seeds have sprouted tiny (1/8-1/4 inch) roots, or even better, when they are just showing the hint of a root, it is time to plant. This is typically after just 2-3 Rinse and Drain cycles.

Planting and Growing

Coconut Coir is our all-time favorite growing medium. It holds moisture better than any medium we've ever worked with. It releases nutrients as the plants grow. It's less messy than soil - though it feels like the loveliest, loamiest soil you can imagine. The only trick to Coir is getting the medium properly moist. Saturated is perfect. Puddles is too much. We mix Earthworm castings in. 75% Coir + 25% Castings. We fill our tray ¾ full. We LOVE this mix!

Baby Blanket: Prepare the pad: Cut it to fit your Tray if necessary. Soak it in water or better yet, Kelp Fertilizer enriched water (You don't NEED fertilizer, but we use it when we grow without soil.) until thoroughly saturated. Spread the wet pad across the bottom of your tray. Proceed...

Spread seeds evenly on thoroughly moistened medium. Though some literature will tell you that your seeds should not ever lay atop each other, we have found from years of experience and thousands of pounds of Greens grown that that is bunk! You will learn for yourself that some Greens (like these) produce a plant that takes up less room than the seed, and so, to maximize your yield, your seeds must lay atop each other to some degree. The thing to watch is this: If you find mold or fungal problems in your Greens, lessen the amount of seed you plant. The hotter/more humid your climate is the more of an issue the mold/fungus is. As always, you need to adapt to your own climate and seasonal conditions. And learn as you go - this is really easy and fun stuff to learn, and what is better than learning?!

Cover the planted tray with an inverted tray (the Cover Tray) - to keep light out and moisture in. Your covering tray should have holes or slits in it to allow air circulation.

Place in a low-light, room temperature location. 70° is always optimal but these Greens will grow very well in cooler or slightly warmer temperatures also.

Water lightly once or twice a day. The goal is to keep the sprouts moist until their roots bury themselves in the medium - at which point your goal is to keep the medium moist. Spraying the sprouts is best - if you use a sprayer in your sink or a hand sprayer - just try to make sure that every sprout gets rinsed and quenched until they bury their roots.Baby Blanket: You will have a much tastier crop when you include Kelp Fertilizer.

Once the roots are buried all you need to do is keep the medium moist - the plants will get the moisture they need through their roots.

Baby Blanket users, here is another watering method... Use the Drip Tray to hold some water. The roots will actually sit in this, so don't go crazy - too much can drown your plants and/or lead to fungal or mold problems. Just leave as much water as the Greens can drink in a day and then add more the following day. The amount is dependant on the size of your tray and the climate (humidity especially) you're growing in, so you'll have to learn this for yourself. As an example, if you are using our 1 Crop Tray Set - which is 10 inches x 20 inches - start with 1-2 cups in the Drip Tray. Lift the Planting Tray to see how much is left after 4, 8 and 12 hours. If the Drip Tray is dry add more water - if there is still water 24 hours later then cut back the next time you add water. Pretty simple really, basically common sense eh? It is really a time saver and produces happy healthy Greens.

Harvesting your crop is just a matter of cutting the plants when they are about 2-4 inches tall and have green leaves. Cut the plants just above the mediums surface.

Harvest should occur BEFORE "true leaves" begin to show. They are leaves which will appear from the center of the first 2 leaves. If you see a few Greens with these tiny leaves forming then get your scissors out - the Greens get less tasty (a bit bitter) if let go too long.

Shells: Sunflower Greens will shed their Shells as their leaves open, but there are always some that are slow to shed. We remove the loose ones like this: Hold the tray at a steep angle and brush your hand back and forth over the top of the Greens. Some leaves won't shed their shells - you will either need to peel the shells off of those, or discard those Sunnys. Eating the shell is generally frowned upon by one's stomach, and is texturally not in keeping with the tender perfection of the other Sunnys, se we advise against it =;-).

Refrigerate If you are going to store your crop, you want your Greens to be as dry as possible, to the touch before refrigerating. So, don't water too close to harvest time.

Transfer your crop to a plastic bag - or better yet try our excellent Produce Storage Bag (they actually extend the shelf life of produce - we use them in our home). Whatever sealed container you choose - put them in your refrigerator.

The surest way to know what amount of seed to use: Spread dry seed on the bottom of that in which you will be growing (i.e. your tray) so that the seed is spread evenly but densely.

One more time: We use a lot of Seeds and though some literature will tell you that your seeds should not ever lay atop each other, we have found from years of experience and thousands of pounds of Greens grown that that is bunk! The thing to watch is this: If you find mold or fungal problems in your Greens then lessen the amount of seed you plant next time. The hotter/more humid your climate is the more of an issue the mold/fungus is. As always, you need to adapt to your own climate and seasonal conditions. And learn as you go - this is really easy and fun stuff to learn!

Here is a visual representation - a picture - which shows you that Sunflower Seeds float. Keeping them under water is accomplished by screwing a screen lid on top of the jar.You really MUST do this. Really.

You may have harvested before now, which is swell - but if you haven't yet, now would be a good time. Pinch a Sunny every day along the way.Taste it. When do you like them best?That's when they're just right.

Greens grown from Sunflowers are remarkabley delicious. If you don't feel you know us well enough to believe it, let's give you a taste: Look under your bird feeder in summertime for a sorta thick stemmed plant about 4-6" tall, with 2 leaves on top. Pick it off above the soil - wash it well - and eat it ..... See? Fantastic aren't they?!

We have claimed for years, that Sunnys need to be planted on soil with 20-30% Earthworm Castings to achieve their full (awesome!) potential in flavor and vigor, but we do have soilless alternatives. Soilless mediums called Baby Blanket and the amazingly moisture retentive Coconut Coir, when used in conjunction with a liquid fertilizer, like Kelp, and/or Earthworm Castings - when using Coir, produces wonderful Greens without the mess of soil. Every plant we've grown using soilless methods has turned out wonderfully, though Sunnys grown on a mix of 75% Coconut Coir + 25% Earthworm Castings are as good as any soil grown crop we ever grew.

Our current Black Oil Sunflower Seeds are all black. These seeds produce some of the most delicious Sunflower Greens ever. They do come with a bit more plant material (stem bits and the like) than we prefer, but Sunnys always have some it seems. Those plant parts have never interfered with our crops, but we like you to know what to expect.

Our current crop comes from right here, in California. The seeds are grown organically and are all black, and produces one of the tastiest Sunflower Greens we can remember.

Planting Density

The more densely you plant the seed the less air circulates around the individual plants. This can cause some fungal growth - we call it “fuzzies”. This is not a problem, except that it is unattractive. Some crops will have mold or rot issues. That is a problem. If you get brown pockets at the soil level, where the plants just die, you are probably in need of more air circulation, so plant fewer seeds next time. If you do encounter rot spots like that, scoop them out - if you're growing on a fluffy medium, and try to nurse your crop to completion. In summer we grow our Greens outside (from the point when we uncover the tray) for optimal air circulation.

Planting Medium

We grew Greens - on soil - in Trays, for over 2 decades. But, we have options these days - soilless Mediums - Baby Blanket, and our all-time favorite - Coconut Coir. Baby Blanket is a thin organic material that you soak before planting upon. It holds moisture and is the least messy and compact medium we know of. Coconut Coir acts very much like soil, but it holds water so amazingly well and is much less messy due to the long coconut fibers it includes, that we now use it - ALWAYS!

If you want to use something else - vrtually any soil will do. These days our base is always Coconut Coir. We used sterile composted cow manure for the tens of thousands of Trays we grew during our days as professional growers, but any sterile bagged soil - or Coconut Coir - will do quite nicely, and should be available at any garden center, and be inexpensive (depending on the general cost of living where you are of course). You can use expensive soil if you prefer - we might even be selling some - it is your choice - always. The deal is this - Greens are aided by the availability of the nutrient Nitrogen. Nitrogen is the nutrient responsible for plant growth (a very good thing when growing lettuce, spinach, collards or other leafy crops, but too much nitrogen is bad if growing peppers or tomatoes or any plant where the fruit is what we eat). Manures contain varrying amounts of nitrogen depending on the animal that originally produced it. Too much nitrogen will burn plants - almost literally burn them - hence the word HOT is used in reference to nitrogen. The higher the nitrogen content the HOTTER the manure (or fertilizer) is considered. Cow manure is the least hot - it was perfect for our needs - it supplies the growing plants with a little extra boost. Chicken, other bird manures and Bat Guano (another word for manure) are much hotter, and Earthworm castings are hotter still (castings is yet another word for manure). The catch is this: Greens, Grass and Sprouts are theoretically all too young to benefit from nitrogen and other nutrients. It is written that every seed has, within itself, all the nutrients it needs to grow to the cotyledon stage. That's as far as we grow any of our seeds (with the sometimes exception of Micro-Greens). So - though it is contradictory, it is our experience that nitrogen does help Greens in some cases (most obviously when growing Sunflower Greens). Like we always say - EXPERIMENT FOR YOURSELF. Draw your own conclusions. If you are familiar with our rap on Dogma, you'll agree with us when we say; Just because it is written does not mean that it is so. Whatever the reality - a little nitrogen can't hurt.

Hydroponic Greens

Meaning: Growing with nothing but water and liquid nutrients. We do not grow hydroponicGreens. We have tried but have never gotten the yields we get with a medium, and the flavor of the crops is nowhere near as delightful. They taste watered down. Now that we have a soilless alternatives we are even less interested in hydroponicGreens growing. But, if you want to try - go to Val at Go Green/Green Smoothie - she is the queen of home hydroponics. Tell her us Sproutpeople sent you!

Tray Note

Your Planting Tray (the one with the medium in it) MUST have drainage holes or slits! Nothing will grow in a medium that can not drain - that condition is commonly called "flooded". When using Baby Blanket, your Planting Tray must also have drainage, but we do use the Drip Tray to hold some water at times in the growing process. (You'll see the TIP in our instructions.)

As I've said time and time again on the site, we hate dogma, so take my dogma with a grain of salt. You can grow in trays without drainage (the amazing people at the Hippocrates Health Institute have long done so), but you do have to be able to drain excess water away. Tipping is a possibility, but we think it risky - especially for the novice grower, hence my dogma.

Re-Growing Your Crop

Greens can produce a 2nd crop - so you may continue to water after you cut your first crop. The 2nd and crop will not be as tender, and it may have fungal problems, but it is good to try growing a 2nd crop. Decide for yourself if it is worth it! . It's worth a try if only for the experience and the knowledge gained.

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Ashley

5/9/2017

Used to bring these bad boys to school in my lunch bag. I bought a 2 lb bag a couple years back when I discovered SP and I keep em in the freezer because I love them so much. Their germination rate and growing quality is still great! Sprouting some right now!

Naz

Verified Purchase

5/20/2016

I followed the growing instructions on the website and grew one of the tastiest greens I have ever had. Normally I dislike all salad greens because I can taste a strong bitter flavor from any green that isn't freshly harvested.

I used the EasySprouter to pre-sprout and then transferred to soil. I sprayed them with kelp fertilizer since I did not have the earthworm castings. The leaves were small (which is what I preferred this time).

Based on other reviews, I plan to use earthworm castings to see how the flavor compares. It's great as it is.

David

9/12/2015

I find a coffee plunger works best for keeping all the seeds submerged. It's so easy to use for this purpose. Sprout On!

Sproutpeople response: The coffee plunger (we're guessing it's a "French press"), is a GREAT idea for soaking sunflower greens!

Greg

Verified Purchase

7/21/2015

These are great seeds, I believe I get 100% of seeds to grow. They have such a great flavor, slightly nutty. Can't recommend enough. Worm castings do make a difference, and I recommend using them. Though I will say they are still wonderful with out and I grew them with out for about 6 months before I started adding the castings.

Diane

Verified Purchase

3/6/2015

When I first got these a year ago, I was surprised at how small they were. When I grew these using Happy Frog from the nursery, the leaves were also small. I recently added worm castings and kelp fertilizer to sprouting soil I got at another website (sorry) and I just noticed the leaves are at least twice as big! They just need worm castings! Silly me. 5 stars and a reorder.

Andreea

Verified Purchase

2/26/2015

These are the first micro-greens I'm growing (I'm in the middle of the first crop). I was somehow expecting a higher germination rate -though, as they just started growing, I might end up with a better result than so far. Even so, I have been snacking on them and these micro-greens are absolutely delicious, I have already ordered another 2 lbs just to have them handy. I highly recommend trying them!

Carol

12/5/2014

I don't soak them. I just keep them very wet the first day on top the dirt and they grow fine. I grow other seeds as microgreens on soil too without soaking the seeds. I just keep them very wet the first day, like broccoli, clover, Russian mix, etc. works for me. I soak them on top the soil I guess you could say.

Lynne

11/12/2014

I am ordering for the third time, I think and I am increasing the amount I'm buying.

I drink green smoothies every morning and add these luscious guys for taste and nutrition. I also eat them throughout the day, of course. I add worm castings to the regular soil for growing and they are growing thick and robust. Just knowing that I will have such great greens all winter is a good feeling.

LEW

8/15/2014

I'm a big fan of the Sproutpeople seed mixes for leafy sprouts and microgreens. Not so much their sunflower seeds however. Poor germination ratio and even with my regular dirt blend using earthworm castings, the vast majority of the hulls stay on and are very difficult to remove. I've been growing microgreens for years and have had much better luck with sunflower seeds from other vendors. The bag I received were the black and white striped variety not the black oil ones that are shown in their pictures. Although this was a disappointment I will say their seed blends are by far the best.

Response from Sproutpeople: I'm shocked you don't like these Lew. They grow wonderfully for me and honestly you are the first person to report any problem. Like our Sunflower pages say (in the Notes tab) - we sometimes have Open-Pollinated seeds - but these of which you are writing are hybrid seeds. Though the hybrid seed has a white stripe - they are Black Oil - not Confectionary (the striped ones). The only reason you would get a poor germination rate from these is if they were not all submerged while Soaking. We note our method on our Sunflower Greens Instruction page; use a jar with a lid to keep them ALL underwater while soaking. Thanks for your many kind words. Happy Sprouting! Gil

valerie

7/17/2014

I love growing these greens. They are easy, fast and taste great! I also love shopping at sprout people. The instructions here are so clear they should call it sprouting for dummies. Great products, We need more recipes.